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Baldwin Wallace’s newest class of students have finally stepped foot on campus eager to learn and to seize the BW experience.

Vice President for Enrollment Management Dr. Scott Schulz said the Class of 2022 is composed of 607 liberal arts students and 73 students in the Conservatory of Music for a total of 680 students.

While the vast majority of these students are already accustomed to calling Ohio home, a quarter of the new students will be traveling from 32 different states to call Ohio home for the next four years.

The most common states traveled from are Pennsylvania, New York, and Florida.

Schulz acknowledged that, like all universities in the Midwest, BW is trying to find new ways to bring in students from a diminishing pool of high school graduates.

In addition to the shrinking population of prospective students, the recent congressional decision to end the Federal Perkins Loan program is forcing roughly a third of BW students to find other ways to pay for their education, said Schulz.

Jesse KucewiczThe majority of the 680 freshmen this year are composed of liberal arts students, with 73 students entering the Conservatory of Music.

While many schools are choosing to lower their standards in an effort to attract new students, BW is taking a different position.

“It was a difficult decision,” Schulz said. “We decided to hold the line, be who we are, keep our academic profile, and stay true to what we represent.”

Rather than choosing to lower their standards, BW is finding new ways to attract future Yellow Jackets.

Schulz said that getting connected with students who have shown interest is quickly
becoming more important.

“We worked to enhance faculty connections with prospective students,” said Schulz. “Anything from completing applications to setting up campus visits, hearing personally from a professor is encouraging.”

The reputation that BW has built in the community and nationwide has long been based on quality rather than quantity, and the class of 2022 is no exception.

The class enters with a mean high school GPA of 3.5, and nearly 40 percent of students are the first in their family to work towards a four-year degree.

Schulz said he was confident that the new methods are paying off “to see [new students] on campus now and to see things in motion.”